UPDATE: Please visit www.savebrightfutures.org for more details on SB86 and information on how to help!
To sign the petition, go here
.Currently, Florida’s Bright Futures scholarships are awarded on a basis that correlates with a student’s standardized test scores, GPA, and amount of volunteer hours. There are two tiers to Bright Futures: Florida Academic Scholars and Florida Medallion Scholars, which cover 100% of tuition and 75% respectively.
A bill has been proposed in the Florida State Senate that would limit students’ eligibility to receive state-backed financial aid, including Bright Futures, to two years of tuition (a total of 60 credit hours) unless the student enrolls in a designated major or “market-driven degree program” that would lead to direct employment. According to Senator Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) who filed this bill, students who enroll in health-care and STEM related majors or in trades such as electrical work and plumbing may be among those listed to receive the upper-level of coverage.
Hundreds of Floridian high school students rely on Bright Futures as a way to pay for college, and if this bill is implemented, it would mean that hard work in school would not be valued as much as career goals. A creative writing student’s future would not matter as much as a pre-health student’s, according to Senator Baxley.
Please don’t let this become a reality.
This means a great deal to me personally. As a high school senior, I plan on studying international studies because I want to be a lawyer. I feel as though this bill does not take students’ entire future goals into account, as many lawyers study philosophy, business, and sociology in undergrad, none of which would qualify for entire coverage under this new bill. Does this mean that lawyers are inessential to society? Not at all.
Furthermore, this bill discredits and discriminates against the hard work of talented and creative students who plan on pursuing artistic degrees. Florida also desperately needs teachers, however will refuse to equally support students aspiring to become them under this bill.